MEASURES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE:
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THIS STUDY:
TOWARD A DEFINITION OF SOCIAL
INDICATORS
Raymond Bauer (1966), often referred to as the father of
the social indicators movement, defined social indicators as
“statistics, statistical series, and all other forms of evidence
– that enable us to assess where we stand and are going with respect to
our values and goals, and to evaluate specific programs and determine their
impact” (p. 1).
A more precise though
controversial description was featured in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s Toward a Social Report:
“…a statistic of direct normative interest which facilitates
concise, comprehensive, and balanced judgments about the conditions of major
aspects of society. It is in all cases a direct measure of welfare and
is subject to the interpretation that, if it changes in the
“right” direction, while other things remain equal, things have
gotten better, or people are “better off”. Thus, statistics
on the number of doctors or policemen could not be social indicators, whereas
figures on health or crime rates could be” (p. 97, cited in Rossi and Gilmartin 1980, p. 16).
This description was
controversial, as researchers Sheldon
and Freeman (1970) criticized this definition, arguing that requiring
social indicators to be of direct or immediate normative interest is too
restrictive. They believed that since a social indicator’s
normative significance and therefore relevance to policy is likely to change
over time, basic research and better data series are needed before the
development of a theoretical framework for social indicators. Sheldon
argued for an inductive approach: first gather descriptive data then develop
the categories that would allow meaningful generalization and eventually work
towards analysis of social change.
Despite the criticism from these
prominent indicators researchers, modern
indicators projects believe that indicators must be descriptive and normative,
largely subscribing to the earlier view put forth by Bauer (1966) and the USDHEW.
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